Rajnath blames Pakistan for Kashmir protests

New Delhi: Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday held Pakistan responsible for the current situation in Kashmir following the killing of Hizbul militant Burhan Wani.
Addressing the Rajya Sabha, Singh said Pakistan is sponsoring “terrorism” in the state of Jammu and Kashmir.
Responding to Congress’ accusation that the state government was treating civilians in the state like militants, Singh clarified that the Kashmir administration was acting tough with “terrorists but had its sympathies with the civilians”.
“A terrorist is killed in our country and Pakistan is trying to interfere in our internal affairs. Their sympathies lies with a terrorist and not just that, they are even observing a ‘Black Day’ to mourn his death, such is the state of affairs in Pakistan,” Singh said while lashing out at Pakistan.
“Pakistan has been playing an irresponsible role, it should not claim to be protector of Muslims. Kashmiris are our own people, they are being misguided,” he added.
Earlier, Arun Jaitley led BJP’s charge in the Rajya Sabha said the Opposition was deceiving itself and the nation if it believed that the PDP-BJP govt in J&K was responsible for the current situation in the state.
“National parties need to work together in the state. The PDP-BJP alliance was chosen by the people. We all know that BJP has ideological differences with the PDP, but we made a compromise for the benefit of the state,” said Jaitley. He also urged the youth in the state to stay away from the unrest.
Jaitley then went on to slam Pakistan for trying to interfere in the internal affairs of India and accused it of being in denial over the fact that J&K belonged to India.
“Pakistan never reconciled to the fact that J&K is a part of India. Because of their failure to accept this, they continued with their twisted politics. This even led to a war between the two countries. Thrice we fought a ‘conventional war’ with them and each time they lost. After realising that they could not win a war against us, they resorted to using terrorism as a means to their end,’ Jaitley said.
Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Ghulam Nabi Azad had spoke before Jaitley and had hit out at the Centre, accusing it of failing to differentiate between civilians and militants in Kashmir.
“Should locals be treated same way we treat militants? Should same bullets that are used on militants be used on innocents?,” asked Nabi.
“Governments are run on trust & faith, but people of J&K have a sense of mistrust towards the current Government. I’m not saying that Kashmiri people had complete faith when Cong was in power, but there was a sense of trust in some corner,” he added.

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